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Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Quiet time to write

This time of year I hear many of my writer friends express their excitement that summer is finally over, the kids are heading back to school, and now they will actually have some quiet time to write. A part of me is envious of this; the only quiet time--ever--in my house is in the middle of the night. You see, we are homeschoolers. We've been at it now for about 8 years...or is it 9?

Summertime is my care-free writing time. During the school year if I want to get writing in, it usually happens after my little ones are in bed (a.k.a. Quiet Time). Sometimes I can sneak off to my bedroom in the afternoon with my AlphaSmart and pound out a page or two. But often, because I was up late writing, I find that I'd rather take a nap than write. (sigh...)

I'm curious. When do YOU find quiet time to write? Do you even need quiet time to write? Do you write listening to music? Or do you need total silence?

Come to think of it, I can actually be quite productive writing in a noisy, busy Whataburger. I think the difference is that no one is tugging on my shirt asking for a cookie or asking me to tell their brother to quit calling them a stinkypoopooface!

6 comments:

stinkypoopooface, that's funny. Mine are more like, "Mom,he hit me." But, it's all the same. My time for writing is always at night. I cannot write if there is a child in the house not in bed. My kids are off to school next week too. My 2 year old will be home, so naptime will be a few hours of quiet time. But, there is so much to fill in at that time. So much to do. Besides, I substitute teach, so I'm gone about 2 days a week working. I do find some time to write at schools when the kids are at PE. 45 mins of uninterrupted time with no kitchen haunting me to be cleaned. So, I've gotten a lot written in those very precious 45 minutes.

I don't know how any homeschool mom does it. I so admire them because I can't wait to send the kidlets off to school again. I have so much more patience with them when we can be apart for a little each day.

All my children are in school now, so I love to write while they're away. Of course, my husband is often home during the day, so I coordinate the times my children are gone with the times my husband is working and then throw it all out the window and type whenever I can get to the computer. Of course, with kids in middle school and high school, it makes it difficult because now they need to type assignments, etc. I think I'll buy that new laptop today so the rest of the family can have computer time once in a while.